Think Pink

The numbers were a little bit bigger for the IU women’s basketball team against Michigan on Sunday – bigger than themselves, bigger than the 74-65 score and bigger than the game. \nThey are just estimates, but the numbers read loud and simple: 40,460 of 178,480. Sadly, those numbers have little to do with basketball. \nInstead, those numbers are the estimated new cases of female breast cancer reported in 2007. The latter represents the overall number of invasive cases reported. The former estimates how many of those cases proved fatal. \nThat means 22.7 percent of estimated female breast cancer patients in 2007 lost their battle with the disease. \nThe world of women’s college basketball did not like those odds. \nIn that spirit, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association fell in league with schools all across the country to conduct the second annual “Think Pink” campaign, aimed at raising breast cancer awareness through women’s basketball. In 2008, 995 women’s basketball programs at the high school and collegiate levels participated. \nSunday, it was the Hoosiers’ turn to host a Think Pink game at Assembly Hall on National Girls and Women in Sports Day – they already played in one at Illinois a week ago. The Hoosiers wore pink socks, both teams donned pink warm-up shirts and both coaches clad themselves in pink shirts for the event. \nMichigan coach Kevin Borseth said after the game he thinks it is good that the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and women’s sports in general support the campaign to raise awareness for what he termed “a terrible disease.”\n“Unless your family or yourself are afflicted with it, you don’t really understand the magnitude of it,” Borseth said. \nFor IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack, however, cancer awareness is perhaps that little bit more personal – her father died of cancer. \nShe smiled widely when asked about the Think Pink campaign after practice last Wednesday, and said she thinks the work women’s college basketball is doing to bring about breast cancer awareness is an easy task. \n“If that’s all we have to do, it’s minor compared to what other people are going through,” she said after practice Wednesday at University Gym. \nLegette-Jack said after Sunday’s win that she thought the afternoon – which saw 2,545 fans come out, the Hoosiers’ largest crowd of 2008 – went well in the spirit of the event. \n“I think that any time you bring attention to anything that’s so terrible as breast cancer, it’s a success,” Legette-Jack said. “There are a lot of people that are going out there and they’re struggling and they actually have this terrible disease, and this is all that they’re asking us to do is wear pink and really bring awareness to it, this is the least that we can do.”\nThe Think Pink campaign is hardly the first time the Hoosiers have given back for a greater cause this season. Rather, it is something Legette-Jack and the Hoosiers have made their focus off the court this season. \nThe Hoosiers have volunteered their time at, among other places, the Shalom House, the Monroe County United Ministries and the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington. Legette-Jack, who has also individually done work with the Salvation Army and the Monroe County United Way, has emphasized her team’s interest in giving back to the community all season. \n“We have a compassion for all, and this is one little piece to our compassion,” Legette-Jack said of the Think Pink campaign Wednesday. \nJunior forward Whitney Thomas, who recorded 19 points and 10 rebounds in the Hoosiers’ victory, said she and her teammates enjoy the work they do outside of Assembly Hall. \n“This is definitely a great cause,” Thomas said after the game Sunday, “and like coach Jack said, the little things that we do to help is what we’re going to do. The community service that we do is something we take pride in.”\nLegette-Jack said Wednesday that wearing pink and hosting Think Pink games around the country was a small task in comparison to fighting cancer. She said she was “honored” to be part of the campaign, and spoke confidently about the effect raising awareness might have in the future. \n“We’re gonna fight this thing,” Legette-Jack said, “and we’re gonna win. We’re gonna win.”